Beyond the Nebula
by Andzzy
Summary: Voyager is traveling through a region dense in nebulae and dilithium. They've faced trouble in the past, but what they find here might just be too much... Takes place between seasons 6 and 7.
1. Chapter 1

Beyond the Nebula

Author Note: This is my first story on fanfiction, and I will try to update it as much as possible. Voyager is one of my favourite shows, so I figured I would write about it. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or shooting me a PM.

Chapter 1

Seven was standing in Astrometrics, scanning the sector for any sign of... well, anything really. Voyager had recently passed through a wave of mutagenic particles, and the crew was still recovering from the effects. On the bridge, Captain Janeway would be instructing her officers to double their scans, while Seven was assigned to locate the source of the wave. She had located several phenomena that could provide a source for the radiation, except for the fact that they were all less than 12 light years away, while the particle wave density indicated a source at least 28 light years out. Long range sensors weren't picking up much of anything, and there was a source of electromagnetic interference past 30 light years that Seven couldn't explain. With her scans reaching a conclusion, she headed for Cargo Bay 2 to regenerate, while Captain Janeway made her way to the Mess Hall for some relaxation.

Janeway entered the Mess Hall, still feeling slightly queasy from the particle wave. The Doctor had treated the entire crew for radiation poisoning, but the feelings of uneasiness were still there. Neelix approached the captain, offering her a coffee. Black, as always. Janeway stared at the coffee until she forced herself to take it. Drinking the coffee, she felt slightly better. She sat down at a table in the middle of the room, allowing herself to listen to a conversation that was happening between Tom Paris, Harry Kim, and B'Elanna Torres. They appeared to be having a mild argument. Tom was arguing with Kim and Torres.

"I think we can do this! Honestly, if we just stabilize the power output in the Quantum Slipstream Drive, we should be able to predict the outcome." Paris seemed very sure of himself.

"No Tom, we can't risk it. Remember what happened the last time you tried transwarp? You already made the history books, so just drop it." Lieutenant Torres was swift in her denial.

"B'Elanna is right, Tom. Even with the newest modifications to the Transwarp Drive, there would be a 60% chance of destruction. We can't risk losing you or the Flyer to an experimental form of propulsion!" Ensign Kim seemed to be ending that statement with a bit of drama. Janeway had heard enough. She knew that if she didn't chime in, heads would roll. Besides, she needed to know what was going on, remembering the last time Tom went into transwarp. She recalled the horrifying results of the mission, and refused to think of it any further before approaching the three officers.

"Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt, but did I hear the word 'transwarp' emanating from over here?" She was not going to let this experiment happen. Ever. Paris was quick with a response.

"Oh! Captain, we didn't see you there. We were discussing the possibility of utilizing an upgraded Transwarp Drive to re-investigate our theories about the warp speed barrier..." He obviously wasn't letting go of this.

"Well, Tom, remember the theory of infinite velocity and occupying every point in the Universe simultaneously and being turned into an alien and..." The list went on for a good 40 seconds more. This gave Kim an excellent idea.

"I know! Why don't you talk to Seven, Tom? The Borg have used Transwarp successfully in the past, perhaps we can use Borg technology to modify the Transwarp Drive and make it stable enough for use on Voyager, get us home faster." He had an idea there, but perhaps a bit risky for Janeway. Either way, she left the Mess Hall wishing them luck in their endeavours. She had changed her mind about never letting the experiment happen again, but she was still very cautious, expecting Seven to shoot down their fantasy with some sort of Borg techno-babble and simple logic. At least she hoped so. She was entering the turbolift when the thought struck her. Coffee would go incredibly well with a muffin. With this in mind, she headed back to her quarters. While she was preparing her snack, Seven awoke from her regeneration cycle. Icheb was working at the console.

Seven got out of the alcove and went over to the console. She stared at Icheb's work. He was busy studying the effects of radiation on different genomes. He had hypothesized a few months back that there was a certain genetic pattern to even energy lifeforms, which kept them "alive". Mostly this research had involved simulating large doses of lethal radiation on different lifeforms, then checking to see if they were either still alive or functioning at the atomic level. So far, all the test subjects in the holodeck had died. Painfully, and rather horribly. This didn't deter Icheb; after all, they were only holograms... Seven finished this line of thought, said good morning to Icheb, and proceeded to Astrometrics.

Scanning the sector provided the same results as the previous days. The usual electromagnetic interference was still unidentifiable, the radiation spikes were occurring only within nebulae now, and there were still no signs of other vessels in the area. Today, scanning produced an asteroid belt rich in dilithium metal. Inevitably, the captain would end up harvesting it, so she may as well inform the captain. Other than that, scans produced nothing out of the ordinary. There was a pre-warp civilization on a nearby planet, but they were going through Earth's equivalent of the Medieval Era, and would be unable to locate Voyager. The surrounding stars and nebulae were exhibiting usual levels of radiation and space matter. Another day of sensor data for the computer to pore over, while Seven would spend most of her time analyzing Earth culture. The Doctor had recommended this as her next social exercise, even though she knew virtually everything about Earth from her time as a Borg drone. The console displayed an unusual energy pattern, and she began to analyze it. It was a mutagenic wave. Curious about it, Seven began to scan the area, providing her with something to do.

The Doctor was preparing the latest batch of hyposprays for treating the crew who were exposed to the mutagenic particles in the wave. Unfortunately, there was still a small amount of the mutagenic wave left in sickbay. The Doctor had been performing an experiment within a containment field when the wave hit, and the frequencies caused the containment unit to trap some of the radiation. The computer was in the middle of dissipating the radiation since it wasn't of any use to Voyager; they already knew what it was. The console bleeped, indicating that the radiation had dropped below 20% concentration. This was good. The decontamination was proceeding faster than expected. With the hyposprays ready, The Doctor sat down at his desk, working on a way to inoculate the crew against the new radiation.

Harry, B'Elanna, and Tom were in engineering, working on the Transwarp Drive. With Seven busy analyzing the mutagenic wave, they were stuck sifting through Borg technology logs that had been converted to Starfleet files. Unfortunately, the data concerning transwarp was relatively incomplete, with only a few sections on theory and a simple prototype device being detailed. The three set to work trying to modify the Transwarp Drive to meet a standard that would allow them to convince Captain Janeway that their flight was absolutely necessary in terms of exploration and discovering what lay beyond the 30 light year "electro-wall", referring to the electromagnetic interference that blocked all sensors past that point. Of course, stabilizing the Transwarp Drive would mean that the vessel would only create a conduit, and not occupy every point in the Universe simultaneously, so Harry was thinking of a way to hit transwarp, collect all the data, and then return to Voyager, without interference from anything. This line of thought was quickly interrupted by the ship shaking, and the bridge calling "Red Alert!" The Transwarp Drive would have to wait.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I will try to make my chapters slightly longer than my first chapter, as I was trying to get a feel for how long I wanted the story to be. That's my update. Without further ado, chapter 2.

Chapter 2

Janeway was sitting in her seat, listening to everything happening around her. Voyager had just been hit by something, and they needed to find out what. Harry was just arriving on the bridge when the captain was issuing orders. "Harry, there you are! I need you to run an analysis and find out what just hit us!" Harry was compliant, instantly taking over his console at ops, running a series of multi-spectral analyses in an attempt to isolate whatever did hit them. The results were slightly astounding. "Captain, I don't know how, but parts of the hull are beginning to disintegrate." Captain Janeway was not anywhere near pleased at the moment, and she eyed her coffee for a moment. It was her third coffee that day, and it looked like it wouldn't be her last. In true poor-timing fashion, Seven called.

"Captain, I believe I have discovered something of interest. I suggest remodulating the shields to an inverse frequency." Tuvok remodulated the shields, which seemed to stabilize the hull fragments that were disintegrating. Janeway called a staff meeting to address the senior officers, and hear what Seven had to say on the wave.

Seven entered the briefing room and noted that all of the senior officers were chatting about one thing or another. Harry and B'Elanna were discussing the damage in the EPS Conduits caused by the disintegrating hull, while Tuvok was discussing a minor malfunction in the shield generator caused by remodulating the shields to an inverse frequency, something not done often. Tom was sitting quietly reading his PADD, probably something Earth-history related. The Doctor was staring at Seven and finally Janeway and Chakotay were discussing how Seven knew to remodulate the shields to stabilize the hull. Seven noted all of these things and sat down at the table. Captain Janeway stood up and addressed her senior officers.

"As you may or may not know, Voyager encountered another particle wave. Seven is going to explain what she's found out about these phenomena. Seven?" Seven stood up to address the officers. It was going to be a relatively unpleasant speech.

"After analyzing the two particle waves that hit Voyager, I have managed to pinpoint the origin of these waves." She tapped a few buttons on the panel, and a display of a dot with an emanating wave pattern appeared. "It appears that a gaseous object approximately 42 light years away is releasing the waves of mutagenic particles..." She couldn't finish before Tom had an enquiry.

"I thought that we couldn't scan past the 30 light year electro-wall." Seven sighed lightly before continuing. Tom could be an interesting individual at times. "We can't. I used the dimensions and density of the particle wave, coupled with the rate of dissipation, in order to determine the source of the wave." Tom went back to fidgeting with his PADD, looking slightly confused. Now it was Chakotay's turn to question the results.

"How do you know it's not some sort of vessel or planetoid releasing the waves?" At least Chakotay's question was easier to respond to. "As Voyager has already experienced, the frequencies of the mutagenic particles vary, causing disruptions in normal matter. This would make it impossible for a solid object to withstand emanating a single wave, let alone multiple." Chakotay was quick with a response. "A gas giant could explain the wave then."

"I think that's enough speculation, commander. Seven, is there any way for us to protect ourselves against the waves?" Captain Janeway was not about to let a giant debate break out when another wave could already be travelling towards Voyager. "The frequencies of the particles appear to be random. Currently, Voyager would need to know the exact frequency of the particle wave and then match the shield harmonic to that frequency. Voyager's sensors cannot work that quickly." This news was disheartening. Captain Janeway sank into her seat, thanking Seven for her presentation.

The rest of the meeting went on relatively smoothly. B'Elanna presented the engineering report, while Harry requested repairs to the EPS Conduits and The Doctor was still looking for an inoculation, although the revelation about the multiple frequencies would make an inoculation almost impossible. Tuvok reported that he would work with Harry on adjusting the sensors to be able to match the shield harmonics to the particle waves more quickly, and Seven suggested a further study of the waves to determine if there was a discernible pattern. Janeway quickly approved all of these measures, dismissing her officers. She exited the briefing room herself, turning off the panel display on her way out. Sitting in her chair, she tried to drink the rest of her coffee. Unfortunately, it was cold and unenjoyable. She wondered for a moment if maybe these particle waves could heat up her coffee again, but resumed her duties when she realized she wouldn't like irradiated coffee.

Seven was back in astrometrics, continuing to analyze the particle waves, attempting to isolate anything in common. She had been at this for two hours, since the meeting, and she had been unable to find anything in common except for the origin of the waves. Whatever was doing this was capable of shifting energy frequencies, a minor characteristic thought only to be used by infinite-energy particles, namely Omega. However, these waves of energy weren't destroying subspace, which meant that the source was definitely not destabilized Omega. The computer wasn't coming up with anything either. Seven had been made aware of the request to go over the Transwarp Drive and suggest how it may be made better. This was looking far more enticing than the wave analysis, and so Seven left the computer to do it and proceeded to engineering, where the device was currently hooked into a diagnostic station. She began a diagnostic to ensure the device was still capable of supporting high-frequency energy.

Harry and Tuvok were in the main deflector control, attempting to maximize power output to the sensors. All of their attempts to quicken sensor and shield response had been met with failure, and the task was beginning to look more impossible with every passing moment. They were testing a power relay that would theoretically increase sensor input by 200%. "Well, shall we test the circuit?" Ensign Kim was eager to flip the switch and watch the sensors go. "Ensign Kim, you are experiencing symptoms of hyperactivity, which could lead to impairment of ability. Please remain calm during the test and remember that these are dangerous energy levels." Harry was too eager. He was ready to do it, get the circuit flowing. He knew that Tuvok would make him wait another few minutes just to power up the relay, but it was too long for him. He convinced Tuvok that nothing would go wrong, that his ability was perfectly unimpaired, and began the power-up sequence. Everything was going great... until the circuit overloaded and blew up in their faces.

The computer picked up on the explosion and sent a warning to the bridge. The ops officer was quick to relay the information. "Captain, a relay just exploded in main deflector control." The captain was quite noticeably concerned. She nearly hammered her combadge. "Janeway to Tuvok. Tuvok... please respond. Janeway to Ensign Kim. Respond please." She waited. There was no response. "Can you get a lock on them?" The officer nodded. "Beam them directly to sickbay, and get B'Elanna down to deflector control. Find out what happened." The officer nodded again, beaming both Harry and Tuvok to sickbay, and issuing the order to B'Elanna to get down to deflector control with an engineering team. Janeway handed control of the bridge over to Chakotay, and proceeded for the turbolift. She needed to find out how her officers were.

In sickbay, The Doctor was prepping hyposprays left, right, and center. Suddenly, two bodies beamed into sickbay. Harry and Tuvok. It was obvious that there had been an explosion from the damage to their uniforms and the burns on their faces and limbs. He placed them both on biobeds, and began the medical scans. For Tuvok, the damage was minor. He would need some dermal regeneration and a mild dosage of Inuprobaline to repair the arterial damage. Harry Kim was going to be a much different story. His injuries were more severe, with the impact of the explosion causing a small rupture in his spinal column. He would need immediate surgery, along with at least a week's worth of observation, since he would most definitely be in a coma for a while. The Doctor was just getting ready for the surgery when Captain Janeway walked in. "Doctor! What happened!" The captain was quite obviously upset. "Captain, I need you to remain calm and administer a small dose of Inuprobaline to Lieutenant Commander Tuvok." Janeway did so, but immediately turned to The Doctor. "What about Harry?" She was more than concerned. This was close to nervous breakdown. "Ensign Kim needs immediate surgery, and I don't know what's going to happen. His injuries are more severe, and stem all the way to his spinal column. This could take a while, and I really do need to insist that you let me perform the operation." Janeway looked stunned, but understanding. She let her head fall, and worry fell across her entire face. She walked out of sickbay and marched to deflector control. She would stop by the mess hall for that fourth coffee. Maybe a fifth as well. This was not a good day so far.

Seven had heard about the accident, and was slightly concerned about Harry and Tuvok. They were good people, and she would hate to lose them. Since engineering was almost empty, she took the Transwarp Drive back to Cargo Bay 2, where she could study it in more detail and more efficiently upgrade it to Borg standards, although even her knowledge was less than complete about transwarp. The analysis was going quickly now, and she was already beginning to incorporate some of her own theories into this device. She ran the profile through the computer, using an algorithm which would spit out useful applications of these principles. Seven continued to work on the Transwarp Drive for the next 20 minutes, until the computer displayed a series of results. She found one particularly intriguing. She could modify the device to enter the Warp 10 phenomenon without specialized energy converters, thus causing the same phenomenon that Tom Paris experienced. This would allow a probe to collect data on both the electromagnetic interference and the gaseous anomaly that was causing the mutagenic particle waves. However, the data wouldn't be precise, she would need a way to collect data about a specific point, and she just couldn't figure out how.

The proposal to the captain went relatively well. While the captain banned any field testing of transwarp capacity, she did agree to allow the probe to be constructed and for holodeck time to be used to design and test sensors capable of pinpointing a specific location within transwarp. Getting her to agree to a test flight was going to be difficult, as the crew was still afraid and on edge from when Paris and Janeway had their 'interesting' experience. Seven used a good deal of time designing the sensors. The hours passed. Tuvok had returned to duty, and began to assist Seven with the sensor design. Ensign Kim was still listed as critical, although apparently the operation had been a success. She decided that later in the evening she would go and visit, just to see what Harry's condition was. The work on the sensors was going slowly, as they would often fall out of phase as soon as a specific location was specified by the remote computer. It was clear that the battle on both fronts, Harry Kim and 'Beyond the electro-wall', were being lost. Seven and Tuvok continued working on specialized circuits that would be able to adjust to the phase of the sensors, but the work was theoretical and slow.

Janeway sat in her quarters, watching Chakotay read from her copy of _Dante's Inferno_. The two of them had spent much time debating and battling each other in the Delta Quadrant. He had often acted as her voice of conscience, trying to get her to do the right thing. Sometimes she just needed a boost. Either way, he was a great source of comfort for her. "Kathryn, I know you blame yourself for all of this. For being trapped in the Delta Quadrant, for the accident in deflector control, even for our current mess with the mutagenic waves. You need to know that no matter what, this crew trusts you because your judgment and leadership have led Voyager through all of these events, and I don't think there's anywhere else I'd rather be." Janeway was touched by this, and even slightly moved. "Thank you, commander. I had lost hope in this predicament especially, what with my ops officer being in critical condition, and almost losing my tactical officer..." "Now, Kathryn, Tuvok's injuries were minor. You heard B'Elanna, they just overloaded a power relay. We will get through this. Harry will get through this. I still have faith in you, even if you don't." Again, she was moved. She barely had time to thank Chakotay before The Doctor came on over the comm. "Captain, this is sickbay. I need to see you immediately. It's Harry." Her heart sank. She got up, and Chakotay followed her lead. "Captain, we'll go together, and we'll be ready for any news The Doctor throws at us." She looked slightly helpless and panicky. Together they strolled out of her quarters and into the turbolift, and Janeway gave the command. "Deck 5, sickbay."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you to Alpha Flyer for the lovely review, I also quite enjoy your stories. As a note, if anyone has any comments, feel free to leave reviews or fire off a PM (as always) :). (I promise I'll respond to you in some form or another).

Chapter 3

The Doctor was waiting for them. The captain would not enjoy this news. The Doctor was going over the reports he had created about Harry Kim's condition. It detailed the entire treatment, starting with his initial transport time into sickbay and carrying on with the physical examination that revealed the spinal damage. The surgery went perfectly, with no rejection on the part of Kim's body and with vital signs only stopping once. The Doctor looked over the final reports. The operation restored Ensign Kim's physical state, but there was a new problem that the captain would have to contend with; one that she would definitely rather not deal with. With this thought, both the captain and commander walked into sickbay, looking a little bit pale and both asking about Harry's condition.

"Captain, I'm afraid I have the proverbial good and bad news." The Doctor was going to try to stay optimistic even though he could imagine the reaction forming in the captain's eyes.

"Well, Doctor, what have you got?" Chakotay was anxious. In fact, he was almost as anxious as the captain was. The Doctor took in a deep breath and began.

"The good news is that Harry will recover from all of his physical injuries, with no damage to his spine or organs. The bad news is that in the process, I had to revive his brain, which caused a small amount of damage leaving him in a coma..." He bowed his head and attempted not to let the disappointment show on his face.

"How long will he be in this coma?" The captain was now officially devastated, and it was clear. "Doc, is there any way we can speed his recovery, or even help out?" Chakotay was also upset, so now The Doctor had two more problems on his hands. This was not going to be a good day...

Seven looked at the probe. It looked like something out of one of Paris's holodeck adventure programs. The long shaft held all of the sensors necessary to accurately scan a specific location, while the head of the probe contained the modified Transwarp Drive and a new power source she had been working on for use in larger starships. This would sustain the Transwarp Drive during its active stages. There was also a plasma-based power distribution system for the power source to tap into, simulating a warp drive without actually having a warp drive. Seven began to catalogue her efforts in the main computer, just briefly looking up when Tuvok walked into the holodeck. He remarked that they had used the holodeck for over three days designing and building the device, and that it remained untested. This was followed by Tuvok assisting seven in her effort to catalogue their process.

Captain Janeway had drawn the short stick on this one. She was stuck on the bridge, trying to keep herself together while monitoring the situation outside the walls of Voyager. The new Ops officer was just getting settled in, feeling slightly twitchy trying to fill in the role of Ensign Kim. There had been no other mutagenic waves, and the surrounding nebulae had been, for the most part, normalized in their radiation spikes since the final wave that hit Voyager. B'Elanna had finished the work on Harry's and Tuvok's power-sensor relay, increasing the input to the sensors by 200%. Janeway intended to test the new interface when the next mutagenic wave was detected. With Seven busy building the transwarp probe, Icheb was left in astrometrics to scan for the waves, placing a great deal of pressure on him. He could handle it, however, and had always proven to be almost as efficient as Seven herself. Janeway was sitting in her chair, drinking her fifth coffee of the day, when Icheb called.

"Captain, a mutagenic wave is approaching Voyager, ETA twenty seconds" She was ready. Voyager would be ready. "I need a frequency, Icheb." Icheb tapped on his panel faster than he had ever tapped before. Voyager began scanning the wave. The data input was incredible. Voyager was literally processing thousands of frequencies per second, where before it could only do hundreds. Finally, 12 seconds later, the result came through.

"Captain, the radioactive frequency is 508.7 MHz." Janeway knew what to do with this. "Tactical, remodulate the shields to match that frequency!" There was frantic tapping, and then... nothing. Voyager didn't so much as move. The captain's coffee remained in the cup. She was impressed and confused. "Icheb, did that wave hit us?" Icheb was just as shocked as she was. It had worked. "No, it passed around us." Janeway's day was going better now.

Seven walked into Janeway's quarters. "Captain, I have a proposal for a transwarp flight test of the-" Seven couldn't finish the sentence. "No. Seven, it's not happening. I'm glad you built the probe, but you need to study it more before we test it." The captain was not budging on the matter. "Captain, Voyager's safety could be on the line if we don't test the probe. Just because you and Lieutenant Paris had a less-than-successful flight..." She trailed off. "This isn't about Paris, or me, or anyone else. This is about the danger that the probe poses, not to mention the stability of the Transwarp Drive. If we lose it, there's not another one. We can't just whip up another drive for testing. It would take weeks of construction, even in the dilithium belt." She pointed out the window, but kept talking. "Seven, I know it's hard to wait, but we have to be absolutely sure that the probe will work before we even let it out of the ship." Seven wasn't about to take this without a zealous counter-argument. "Captain, if we lose this opportunity, the situation both in and out of Voyager could get worse. We may never get this chance again. The longer we wait for the conditions to improve, the more danger we are imposing on the crew of Voyager!" She was getting impatient. They both were. Janeway walked over to a picture sitting on her table. If there was any chance that this probe could gather information that would get Voyager home faster, they needed to take it. She knew this. With this information in mind, she walked over to Seven. "I know what this transwarp probe means to you, and I know what it could do for Voyager and her crew. I promised myself after the Caretaker, that I would get the crew home. If this transwarp probe will help me do that, then I'll authorize the launch. Get the probe ready, transwarp at 0700 hours." Seven was moved. She looked at the captain, thanked her for the authorization, and then walked out of the quarters. It would be a relatively long night, with Tuvok being angry for having to prepare the probe, but it would be ready, and Voyager would soon know everything it needed to...

The probe was launched at 0700 hours. The bridge was abuzz with activity. Tactical was monitoring the area for threats to the launch, while Ops was scanning for mutagenic waves that could interfere with the probe's transwarp flight. So far, everything was clear. Seven stood with apprehension at her console, awaiting the moment when she could push the button and send the transwarp probe into infinity. The captain, too, looked anxious, for reasons known to both her and Seven. Finally, after ten minutes of engine charging, the probe was ready for transwarp. "On my mark!" The captain was ready to give the signal. Seven did a final sweep of the area. There was nothing on sensors. "Captain, the area is clear. We are clear to send the probe into transwarp." Captain Janeway wasted no time in giving the order. Seven pushed a few buttons on her console, and the probe vanished from space entirely.

Five seconds passed. Then ten. Finally, fifteen seconds had passed since the flight of the probe. In theory, it would now drop out of transwarp exactly where it had entered. Twenty seconds passed. Still no probe. Janeway ordered Seven to scan the area for the probe, while the Ops officer checked his sensors. "Captain, a transwarp signature is emanating from approximately 1.4 light years away." The captain was astonished. That far away? Janeway ordered Tom to set a course at warp 7. She wanted that probe back quite badly. After all, it contained all of the data that the crew needed on this sector, including the data on the electro-wall and what lay beyond. After a very long five minutes, Voyager came out of warp just in front of the transwarp probe. The captain was ready for the mystery of this region to end. She tapped her combadge. "Bridge to Engineering." The response was quick. "Go ahead, captain." "The transwarp probe is being transported directly to engineering, please download the logs." "Yes captain, engineering out." Janeway ordered Ops to beam the probe into engineering, and also ordered Seven to go to engineering to download the probe's data. She went, looking forward to seeing the results.

The probe was sitting there while the data was decrypting. Something Seven had forgot to mention was that the spacial sensors would encrypt all data if the probe was found to be away from the origin position. The data automatically began encrypting when the probe came out of transwarp, and had been decrypting for over 2 hours. Finally, the probe displayed a message, "Decryption complete, downloading sensor information." Images came up on the screen. Both Seven and B'Elanna gasped. B'Elanna tapped her combadge, missing the first time, but getting it on the second. "Torres to Janeway." "Janeway here." "Captain, you need to take a look at this data." "I'm on my way." Janeway wondered what was so important on the probe. Maybe the data had been flawed. Perhaps the sensors had misaligned and caused the probe to scan in a different location. Janeway simply didn't know. When she got off the turbolift and into engineering, she peered at the screen. Oh, this was bad... very bad.


End file.
